Between legitimacy and vulnerability

Mapping empirical fact-checking research in Portugal, Spain and Italy (2020–2025)

Resumo

Fact-checking has emerged as a central journalistic response to the contemporary crisis of information credibility, particularly in media systems marked by political polarization and platform-driven disinformation. Although academic research on fact-checking has expanded rapidly, there is limited comparative reflection on how its empirical dimensions have been studied across national contexts in Southern Europe. This article addresses that gap by examining empirical fact-checking research conducted in Portugal, Spain, and Italy between 2020 and 2025. The study is based on a systematic review of 108 peer-reviewed empirical articles indexed in Scopus. Focusing exclusively on reported empirical findings, a qualitative thematic analysis was applied to identify recurrent patterns, tensions, and interpretative frameworks shaping academic production in the three countries. The analysis reveals three dominant thematic clusters. First, the integration of artificial intelligence into fact-checking practices appears as a site of innovation accompanied by ethical concerns, opacity, and increased editorial dependence. Second, structural constraints such as resource scarcity, limited visibility, and infrastructural fragility significantly restrict the reach and societal impact of fact-checking initiatives. Third, disinformation is consistently framed as a politically saturated phenomenon, frequently instrumentalized by radical right-wing actors to delegitimize journalism and reshape public discourse. These findings depict fact-checking as a practice oscillating between symbolic legitimacy and operational vulnerability, shaped by technological transformations, structural inequalities, and political contestation. The article argues for a situated understanding of fact-checking that accounts for its communicative, political, and technological dimensions, highlighting the need for comparative and context-sensitive approaches in future research.